Primordial Hole
by Annaiese
Summary: Gippal says something stupid again. Birthday fic for 1frickengirl D


Gippal walked into his bedroom, still feeling slightly annoyed. Rikku had been there, of course, and had managed to distract over half his employees for the hour and half she and Paine had been there. They were doing him a favor, yes, by stealing that serpentine belt off one of the older machina in Zanarkand, but he just couldn't afford to have his employees starry-eyed and tongue-tied over Rikku and her barely-there clothes. And when he told her as much, she had looked at him like he had his head on backwards.

Then she threw a wrench at him. He would have dodged it, but the look in her eyes had rendered him immobile for the split second it took the wrench to leave her hand and smack him squarely between the eyes. Of course, he hadn't meant to hurt her feelings, okay, he had, but he didn't mean to _really_ hurt them, he just wanted her to stop showing up looking so…so… _utterly sexy?_ the annoying voice in his head, that only spoke up when Rikku was near, chimed in. Gippal of course, could admit to anyone that yes, Rikku was indeed cute, pretty even, but any comparisons after that were quickly denied, at least in public. In private, he could say that she was beautiful without feeling awkward, and only when completely and utterly shit faced drunk would the knowledge that he was absolu-positively in love with her not scare the crap out of him.

His friends, the three that he had, knew. Baralai kept himself quiet because he understood, Nooj because he didn't give a damn, and Paine because she liked to watch him squirm. He'd been in love with her for years, and while he'd been faced with the terror that was Sin, and then the greater fear of failure in regards to the machine faction, he had hoped it would wear off, like some blind spell. It hadn't of course, and he could acknowledge now that it probably never would. So he could resign himself to the fact that he was in love with a crazy, perky, absolutely adorable blonde, but he didn't have to like it. Especially when she was wandering around his faction in next to nothing distracting his mechanics when the only person she should be distracting was _him._ It just wasn't right.

He knew he'd have to apologize and figured he might as well get it over with before she blew another giant hole in his temple.

Rikku was irritated. Really irritated. How dare he? How _dare_ he? A hoochie? Who even _said _that anymore? So she had a nice body, well it was _hers_ and she'd display it however she chose. That arrogant, insufferable, wretched old man could just shove his stuff prude ass back to whatever primordial hole he climbed out of for all she cared. _Hoochie._ Ha.

Rikku sat down heavily on the couch. Well, at least he noticed, that was something, wasn't it? He didn't treat her like a five foot two annoyance anymore, well at least not most of the time. But dammit, _dammit_, he was _supposed_ to notice. And then he was supposed to ogle, and then beg and grovel, and _then _he was supposed to kiss her senseless. He'd stopped at the noticing, hadn't even ogled even though she clearly had great muscle tone. Rikku turned around to examine herself in the mirror, and started when she saw his reflection enter her room.

"What do you want?"

Gippal's gulp was audible. "To apologize. I'm sorry, I was an ass, and I know it."

"….Fine."

Gippal blinked, "Fine?" Rikku glared at him as she turned back around, "Yes! Okay! Fine is good. Fine is definitely great. Better then great. Fine is… well fine."

"Anything else Gippal?"

"Uhhh….no, only well. Umm…" another audible gulp "yes actually."

"What?"

"Don't come here dressed like that anymore."

"WHAT? Why you-" Rikku's tirade was interrupted when he held up a hand for silence.

"Don't come here dressed like that anymore, because I'd really hate to have to kill my mechanics for looking at my girl like she was dessert. I'm short staffed as is, and I just can't afford it."

"Your girl? What do you mean your girl?"

Gippal took a step towards her, then another, then another, until he was standing directly in front of her. With a yank, Rikku was tumbling into his arms. One hand slid up to tangle in her hair, drawing it up so she was looking into his eyes. "My…" his other hand slid around to bind around her waist, drawing her still closer against him. "….girl." And with that he kissed her. And Rikku was far too happy to even contemplate arguing or much of anything at that moment.


End file.
